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1. Please Be Kind (1938) 8. Any Place I Hang My Hat (1946)/ Sammy Cahn/Saul Chaplin 3:06 One for My Baby (1943) Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen 6:00 2. Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (1932/1937) Sammy Cahn-Saul Chaplin/Sholom Secunda 2:57 9. How Deep is the Ocean? (1932) Irving Berlin 2:39 3. Serenade in Blue (1942) Mack Gordon/Harry Warren 4:24 10. The Man That Got Away (1953) Ira Gershwin/Harold Arlen 4:19 4. The White Cliffs of Dover (1941) Nat Burton/Walter Kent 5:30 11. The Thrill is Gone (1931) Lew Brown/Roy Henderson 4:26 5. Look for the Silver Lining (1919) Buddy DeSylva/Jerome Kern 2:30 12. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (1931) Billy Moll-Ted Koehler/Harry Barris 2:41 6. Always (1925) Irving Berlin 4:44 13. When You Wish Upon a Star (1940) Ned Washington/Leigh Harline 4:04 7. Love (1945) Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane 3:10 14. This Is All I Ask (1965) Gordon Jenkins 4:02 — - 55:32 - — © Meyer Sound Laboratories Inc. All Rights Reserved, 2013. innova® Recordings is the label of the American Composers Forum. innova 875 www.innova.mu www.meyersound.com From Stephanie Blythe – The first half of what has been dubbed “The American Century” witnessed an out- There are so many folks that helped pouring of popular song unrivalled by any other country on earth. During those rich It all began with dinner. I met the to make this all possible: the brilliant years, music and lyrics of the highest craftsmanship flowed from the imaginations of brilliant couple, John and Helen team at Meyer Sound Laboratories our nation’s greatest popular songwriters. The most enduring of these standards from Meyer, at a fundraising dinner held at working with the amazing John Pel- the golden years of Tin Pan Alley, musical theater, and film comprise the canon now Meyer Sound Laboratories in Berke- lowe, the always incisive, wonderful ley, CA, following a concert given by Evans Mirageas, John and Helen commonly known as the “Great American Songbook.” These were songs intended Craig Terry and myself to raise funds always checking in, making sure that for, or adopted by the most accomplished singers of the twentieth century, like Bing for Cal Performances. The concert was everything was all right, taking care of Crosby, Ethyl Merman, Judy Garland, Kate Smith, and Frank Sinatra. held in their Pearson Theater. When our every need, right down to beauti- Continuing this lineage of artists in our own generation is Stephanie Blythe, I first saw the space, I was shocked; I fully catered meals before every ses- whose vocal beauty and communicative powers combine to express a nation’s hopes, am used to singing in large spaces, and sion. It was four days of unadulterated dreams, loves, and values. On television and stages throughout our country she has this was petite, to say the least. What bliss. And most importantly, we were breathed new life into these works in interpretations that still possess the ability to I was to discover was that this glori- all THRILLED by the results. We touch contemporary audiences. Her deep commitment and authority in presenting ous space could create any acoustic we wanted a recorded sound that makes this repertoire have made Stephanie Blythe the reigning Queen of American Song could possibly desire, allowing us to the listener feel like they are right in our time. Her creative partnership with the remarkable pianist Craig Terry in this play with the most intimate or grand there in the room with us, and that, of musical textures – granting us a my dears, is what we got! collection marks a dynamic collaboration that celebrates our wealth of American clarity of sound and freedom that is song classics. not always guaranteed in the largest How can I begin to thank Craig The sense of irrepressible optimism that has long typified the indomitable spirit concert halls. Terry? Perhaps by just saying that our of the American character shines through in Look For The Silver Lining, the hit of collaborations make my heart soar, my the 1919 musical Sally, with songs by Jerome Kern and Bud DeSylva, and highlight- Sitting with John and Helen later that brain shout with joy, and my voice feel ing the great Ziegfeld Follies star Marilyn Miller. The broadly lyrical gestures of the night over our meal, I asked a million as if it can say absolutely anything – melody resonate with Kerns’ early training in operetta composition, while DeSylva’s questions. How was this exquisite and that you always play the perfect text reassures that life’s clouds will vanish with a sunny disposition. sound made possible? How can this question for me to answer, and play Even a calamity as grave as the Great Depression proved incapable of crushing be utilized in the concert theater? the perfect answer to my question. this hopeful spirit, which was shored up during those dark years by upbeat songs like Might it be used for recording? My biggest issue with recording my own Thank you, darling Caroline – this is Harry Barris, Ted Koehler and Billy Moll’s Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams. First voice was that when I listened to as much your accomplishment as it is popularized in 1931 by the new crooning sensation Bing Crosby, its swinging dance- playbacks, it never really sounded like mine. like melody and confident dismissal of cares offered a welcome diversion from the me – I was interested in a sound that economic troubles of the day. was honest, generous and real. After Lastly, I would like to dedicate this The tradition of the Broadway revue that had been established in the early twen- talking with John, I just mentioned recording to my fabulous husband, tieth century by Florenz Ziegfeld’s lavish Follies revues continued in George White’s casually that if Meyer Sound was in- David Smith-Larsen. You make it all Scandals, which ran between 1919 and 1939. The Scandals of 1931, scored by the song- terested in doing any experiments with worthwhile, lover! writing team of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, and starring Rudy Vallee, Ethel recording, I was their gal. That was Merman, Ray Bolger, and Alice Faye, ran for 202 performances. Its most endur- the beginning – Helen Meyer did her ing number, The Thrill Is Gone, expresses the bitter disillusionment of a faded love. magic – she asked all the right ques- tions, got all the right people together, While relatively rare in American popular song, the minor mode appeared here and and Craig Terry and I were given an several other times during the Depression years, as reality surged to the surface amid opportunity of which we had only the era’s cheerily escapist songs. dreamed: to record these wonderful Irving Berlin, America’s most prolific genius of both music and words, also turned songs in a loving, supportive, imagi- to the minor mode the following year in the plaintive love ballad, How Deep Is The native place with amazing, talented, Ocean? It is a verseless song with lyrics that cut directly to the heart with nothing innovative people. more than a series of disarmingly straightforward reflective questions. The melody lies almost entirely within an octave and moves pensively in small intervals, creat- tion of African-American musical language was never far away, even in songs that ing the melancholic feeling of one desperately seeking words worthy of expressing a were intended for white stars. A lonely bar near closing time and a solitary customer profound love. bending a bartender’s ear while drowning his sorrows over a lost love sets up Johnny Berlin had explored the depth of romantic commitment in an equally original way Mercer’s evocative scenario for one of Arlen’s most masterful songs, One For My several years earlier. Following a period of mourning for the loss of his first wife in Baby. Another single narrowly-ranged phrase broods repeatedly, broken only by the 1913, he had begun to court Ellin Mackay, a member of a prominent Catholic social- weary toast that concludes each A section, “make it one for my baby, and one more for ite family. In defiance of the wishes of Ellin’s father, who objected to the composer’s the road.” Incapable of being confined to the conventional 32 bars of melody, Arlen Jewish immigrant heritage, the couple eventually eloped in 1926. Although Ellin allowed the emotional overflow of Mercer’s lyrics to spill over into an unrestrained 48 suffered disinheritance as a result, she – and the American people – received, in honor bars. Stephanie Blythe and Craig Terry reveal the affinity between these two Arlen of their wedding, the gift of one of the most cherished of all his songs, Always. The road songs by interweaving the verses into their own unique composite arrangement. remarkably economical chorus is unified by a simple rising five-note motive and by Arlen later teamed with Ira Gershwin on the score for the 1954 Hollywood re- the all-important word that closes nearly every phrase – “always.” make of “A Star is Born,” which marked a triumphal comeback for Judy Garland. “Bei Mir Bistu Shein” (“To Me You are Beautiful”), from a short-lived 1932 Yid- Wee hours in a bar room were again the backdrop, this time for a late-night rehearsal dish musical comedy by Shalom Secunda and Jacob Jacobs attracted the attention of the heartbreaking torch song The Man That Got Away. Nominated for Best Orig- of lyricist Sammy Cahn after hearing it presented by African-American perform- inal Song in 1955, it would become, along with many Arlen songs, closely identified ers (in Yiddish!) at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1937.